On Friday at 1:30 Supervisor Watson and Monterey Trail Property owners met next to the library (see story). But at 4:00 p.m. another group, pictured, not notified of the first meeting, met near Monterey Trail to go over county maps and gather information about revitalization of Frazier Park?s main street. (l-r) Frank Maga, Michael Watson, Michelle Maga, Penny Maines, Bob Mills, Gary Meyer, Gary Wilson, Rob Rodriguez, Kerri Anderson, James Zoppe. This group came together into an Frazier Park Action Task Force from the ?open to the public? Synergy Summit process.
‘We Will Work It Out’ County Says
By Patric Hedlund
(Click to see County drawings of Frazier Park Beautification Project)
If a little controversy is what it takes to get everyone focused on an issue at the same time, then it is possible that the Frazier Park "Beautification" project is set to sail forward, with some unexpected benefits.
Malinda Chadwick, president of the Frazier Park Public Utilities District (FPPUD) saw the situation differently on Friday, March 9.
That day two groups met at opposite ends of the street they were both talking about, each unknown to the other, but each with the same mission: revitalizing Frazier Park’s business district with attractive and walkable main streets.
Chadwick and FPPUD manager Greg Keenberg got a hasty call about noon that Friday from Bakersfield about a 1:30 meeting next to the Frazier Park library which they needed to attend. It was a complete surprise, both say.
That meeting was composed of downtown parcel owners who Kern County Supervisor Ray Watson’s liaison Christy Fitzgerald says were notified by Mark Evans of the Kern County Roads Department by letter two weeks in advance. Fitzgerald said in an interview that FPPUD’s letter was returned, which was the cause of the hasty telephone call.
There were two goals for the meeting: to show preliminary illustrations of the Monterey Trail, Mt. Pinos Way Beautification Project [see page 9] and to "determine if they were in support," Supervisor Watson said in an interview Tuesday, March 13. If they were, he wanted to discuss how maintenance of the plantings, lighting and walkways would be financed. One proposal he wanted to talk about is a County Service Area (CSA) which would cost about $300 per year to each property owner to create a fund for maintenance, he said.
Supervisor Watson arrived at the meeting room with staff from the roads department. Joining them were Mountain Communities property owners Sigmund Lichter, James Wainright and Sharon Witt. Another, Khalil Sameer, had been informed of the meeting but couldn’t make it. FPPUD is also an owner on the strip.
Chadwick said in an interview Saturday, March 10 that she arrived to a room full of laughter and joking. "Those are real pretty drawings," she remembers saying, "but I’m here to rain on your parade. I think beautification is a wonderful idea, but it is premature. I can’t believe that people would build something like this knowing that they could be sitting on a time bomb…."
Her unexpected comments were a reference to a battle the volunteer board of the FPPUD feels it has been fighting alone, trying to find additional funding to replace the 1926 water pipes beneath Frazier Park’s streets.
Chadwick explains that a USDA grant/loan that was supposed to launch that effort and leave the PUD solvent, instead left the district $80,000 in the red because of "unexpected changes in the federal government’s administration of the program once so much money started going to Iraq," Chadwick said.
She told the group that if an old pipe breaks under Monterey Trail after they create landscaping, plant trees, install sidewalks, curbs and paving beautification, that the FPPUD will not have the budget required to replace it all.
She said it could cost $2 million to do what the water company needed to do and she wanted the process to "slow down and wait for about two years while we get our funding in place to complete the upgrade of the water system."
Watson said he replied "We have access to that $600,000 for this beautification and it must be committed [with all parties agreeing] by May 1 or June 1. If it is not committed by that time, we lose it."
He added that it could be "2015 or 2020 before that money could roll back around again," for Frazier Mountain.
Although Chadwick’s disclosure may have caused discomfort at the time, those who attended agreed, "It is expressing a reasonable concern about potential problems that could occur," Watson said Tuesday.
"Our engineering department is going to get together with FPPUD Manager Greg Keenberg to review the maps and see in what areas there may be an overlay. So we can see how to address it."
"We are going to go on a fact-finding mission now, to see what the real situation is, and how we can work together to solve it," Mark Evans said.
"Besides, what a perfect time when we have the streets torn up for there to be new pipes laid in," Christy Fitzgerald added.
The other group, the ad hoc Frazier Park Action Task Force, is formed from those who stepped up in the public Synergy Summit February 15 to discover how to address infrastructure needs in Frazier Park.
They want to support a hatchling ecotourism industry based in the Mountain Communities that can provide economic opportunity to this region based on maintaining the natural mountainscapes and healthy forests surrounding the region.
Watch The Mountain Enterprise Calendar section for further information about their gatherings.
This is part of the March 16, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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